ORIGIN OF LIFE

ON EARTH
Prepared by:
Charisma Leona E. Enderina, R.N.
ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH:
When and where did life possibly start?
Many culture develop different
versions about the origin of life.
Earth is said to be a little over 4.5
billion years (Gigaannum or Ga)
old.
The oldest material found on earth
that is estimated to be 4.4 billion
years old is a ZIRCON CRYSTAL.
 As earth cooled and the surface
solidified, the first solid rocks
formed.
Continents were not yet present;
only a huge ocean with scattered
small islands.
Events such as erosion,
sedimentation, and volcanic
activities that were assisted by
possible meteor impacts, gradually
created the continents, which were
roughly in their current size 2.5
billion years ago (Gya).
 About 3.8 Gya, life on earth initially began with single-
celled prokaryotic cells.
Over a billion years later, multicellular life evolved. Some
studies show that the life forms began to evolve 570
million years ago (Mya).
This evolution started with early anthropods, followed by
the fish (530 Mya), and land plants and forests (475 Mya and
385 Mya respectively).
It was only at around 200 Mya that early mammals
emerged.
Homo sapiens is believed to have evolved about 200 000
years ago.
EARLIEST LIFE ON EARTH
STROMATOLITES are
layered mounds, columns, and
sheet-like sedimentary rocks.
They were originally formed by
the growth of layer upon layer
of cyanobacteria, a single-celled
photosynthesizing microbe that
lives today in a wide range of
environments ranging from the
shallow shelf to lakes, rivers,
EARLIEST LIFE ON EARTH
CYANOBACTERIA have an
extensive fossil record. The
oldest known fossils, in fact,
are cyanobacteria from
Archaeanrocks of western
Australia, dated 3.5 billion
years old.
Cyanobacteria are among the
easiest microfossils to
recognize.
EARLY
THEORIES
ON THE
ORIGIN
OF LIFE
http://blogs.plos.org
THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
A. CREATION THEORY
The concept of divine
creation is that all life
forms existing today on
Earth have been created by
supreme being.
B. THEORY OF ABIOGENESIS /
SPONTANEOUS GENERATION
THEORY
It states that living things were
naturally created from non living
things such as simple organic
compounds.
The theory supposes that abiogenesis
occurred between 3.8 to 4 Gya.
The experiment performed by Stanley
Miller in 1953 gave way to many
speculations and studies on how life
on Earth really began.
C. THEORY OF BIOGENESIS
Presented a strong argument against
abiogenesis.
This theory states that living things come
from living things.
Experiments of Francesco Redi and Louis
Pasteur disproved the thought of
spontaneous generation during their time.
The law of biogenesis contradicted the
common belief during his time that cattle
dung gives rise to flies, or old clothes with
rotten food that is left in a dark room for a
few days gives rise to mice.
D. THEORY OF
CATASTROPHISM
This theory supported by
French scientists Georges
Cuvier (1769-1832) and
Orbigny (1802-1857), is said to
be a modification of the
creation story of the Bible.
It states that there have been
several living creations from
God, each encountered a
catastrophe that completely
destroyed them.
WHAT ARE CHARACTERISTICS OF
LIVING THINGS?

www.thetimes.co.uk www.dhgate.com
LIVING
THINGS
ARE
MADE UP
OF CELLS
1. Living Things are Composed of
Cells:
Single-cell organisms have
everything they need to be self-
sufficient.
In multicellular organisms,
specialization increases until
some cells do only certain things.
CELLS Came from the Latin word cella
which means small room.
is the basic structural, functional,
and biological unit of all known
living organisms.
It is the smallest unit of life that
can replicate independently, and
cells are often called the
building blocks of life.
The study of cells is called cell
biology.
CELLS
Cells consist ofcytoplasmenclosed within
amembrane, which contains
manybiomoleculessuch
asproteinsandnucleic acids.
Organisms can be classified
asunicellular(consisting of a single cell;
includingbacteria)
ormulticellular(includingplantsandanim
als).
While the number of cells in plants and
animals varies from species to species,
humans contain more than 10trillion(10 12)
cells.
Most plant and animal cells are visible only
under a microscope, with dimensions
between 1 and 100micrometres.
FRANCESCO REDI
February 18, 1626
March 1, 1967
FRANCESCO REDI
Redi is best known for his series
ofexperiments, published in 1668
asEsperienze Intorno alla Generazione
degli Insetti(Experiments on the
Generation of Insects), which is
regarded as his masterpiece and a
milestone in the history of modern
science.
The book is one of the first steps in
refuting "spontaneous generation"
a theory also known as
FRANCESCO REDI
He was an Italian physician,
naturalist, biologist and poet.
He is referred as to the founder
of experimental biology and as
the father of parasitology.
He was the first person to
challenge the theory
ofspontaneous generationby
demonstrating thatmaggotscome
from eggs offlies
ROBERT
HOOKE
1665
ROBERT C. HOOKE
When: January 1, 1653
Consignment form the King,
Personal Curiosity
Methods: Looked at a thin slice of
cork through a microscope at 50x
Institution: The Royal Society
Where: London, England
Technology: Microscope
ROBERT C. HOOKE
From 1635 1703, he was 26 years
old when he took the assignment
from Wren and joined the Royal
Society for Scientists.
Hooke also taught himself technical
drawing, a skill he used to capture
observations through his
microscope.
Hooke applied his technical abilities
to invent ways of controlling the
height and angle of microscopes, as
CELLS Cell theory was first developed
in 1839 by MATTHIAS JAKOB
SCHEILDEN and THEODORE
SCHWANN states that all
organisms, that all cells comes
from pre-existing cells, and that
all cells contains the hereditary
information necessary for
regulating cell functions and for
transmitting information to the
next generation of cells.
CELLS Cells emerged on earth at least
3.5 billion years ago.
Some living things are made up
of only single cells. Single-celled
or unicellular organisms
including bacteria, some protists,
and some fungi.
Even though composed of single
cells, these organisms carry out
all the functions necessary for
life.
2 KINDS OF
ORGANISMS
ACCORDING
TO THEIR CELL
STRUCTURE
PROKARYOTIC Prokaryotes are
single-celled
CELL organisms that lack
a membrane-bound
nucleus,
mitochondria, and
all other organelles.
Its name comes
from the Greek
words pro, which
means before,
and karyon, which
means nut or
kernel.
EUKARYOTIC CELL
Eukaryotes are
organisms with cells
that contain membrane-
bound nucleus and
other membrane-bound
organelles.
The nucleus of
eukaryotic cell contains
the genetic material
(DNA), enclosed by a
nuclear envelope.
CELLS The cell theory describes the
properties of all cells. There are
three tenets of the cell theory:
All living things are composed
of one or more cells.
The cell is the basic unit of life
All cells arise from pre existing
cells.
LIVING
THINGS ARE
ORGANIZED
2. Living things have different levels of organization
Both molecular and cellular organization.
Living things must be able to organize simple substances into
complex ones.
Living things organize cells at several levels:

Tissue- a group of cells that perform a common function.
Organ- a group of tissues that perform a common function.
Organ system- a group of organs that perform a common function.
Organism- any complete living thing.
 Life on earth exhibits organization.
The ATOM is smallest unit of matter, followed by
molecules, which are combinations of atom.
When these molecules are grouped together, they
ultimately form a CELL. A cell is the basic unit of life.
In multicellular organisms like plants and animals, cells
are grouped as TISSUES to perform a specific functions.
Different tissues can be grouped further and form
ORGANS. Organs in animals include the heart, brain
and lungs among others.
 The organs form ORGAN
SYSTEMS that makes the
function of the body more
complex and efficient.
ORGAN SYSTEMS will
the form the whole
ORGANISM. All living
things exhibit
organization, whether
they are unicellular or
multicellular organisms.
LIVING
THINGS
USES
ENERGY
AND
METABOLIZE
3. Living things use energy
Living things take in energy and
use it for maintenance and
growth.
Essential chemical reactions in life
can be best described as building
up (anabolism) and breaking down
(catabolism) processes.
* Metabolism came from the
Greek word metabole meaning
change, is the sum total of all life-
sustaining chemical reactions in
living things.
LIVING
THINGS
RESPOND
TO STIMULI
4. Living things respond to their
environment / stimuli
Living things will make changes in
response to a stimulus in their
environment.
A behavior is a complex set of
responses.
This responsiveness makes them
survive.
Stimulus (plural: stimuli) is any
signal or change in the environment
of an organism that produces a
response or reaction from that
organism.
 Responses to stimuli depend
on the need of an organism.
Responding to stimuli also
maintains homeostasis in
living things.
HEMEOSTASIS is the
internal balance of the body or
system of living organisms.
LIVING
THINGS
GROW AND
DEVELOP
5. Living things grow
Cell division - the orderly formation of new cells.
Cell enlargement - the increase in size of a cell. Cells grow to a
certain size and then divide.
An organism gets larger as the number of its cells increases.
 Growth and development are not new concepts to many. In all
living things, growth involves the increase in ones size or
height.
Growth is not just an increase in physical structure; it also
involves complex changes in the organism.
Growth and development occurs rapidly from younger stages
of life to maturity.
Microorganisms such as bacteria also undergo growth and
development until they reach their maximum size and
maturity.
Life Span is the maximum length of time a living thing can
live.
LIVING
THINGS
REPRODUCE
6. Living things Reproduce
The ability of living things to produce offspring of its own
kind is called reproduction.
Reproduction is not essential for the survival of individual
organisms, but must occur for a species to survive.
Reproduction is not an individual organisms need, rather, it
is for the species need for perpetuation.
All living things reproduce in one of the following ways:
Asexual reproduction - Producing offspring without the use of
gametes.
Sexual reproduction - Producing offspring by the joining of sex cells.
LIVING
THINGS
ADAPT AND
EVOLVE
7. Living things adapt to their
environment
Adaptations are traits giving
an organism an advantage in a
certain environment.
Adaptation is any response or
reaction toward a stimulus that
helps in the survival of an
organism.
Variation of individuals is
important for a healthy species.
 Evolution is the gradual
change in organisms over a
long period of time in
response to the changing
environment.
LIVING
THINGS
INTERACT
8. Living Things Interact
An ECOSYSTEM is a system formed
when a community of organisms
interacts with another and with its
environment.
Many processes and interactions,
such as the feeding relationship, life
cycle of organisms, and exchange of
gases in plants and animals, occur in
the ecosystem.
These are some of the important
processes needed to maintain life on
Earth.